U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday “appealed to philanthropists to ‘make a smart investment in the world’s future’ by joining the United Nations in accelerating the fight against five of the most deadly infectious diseases which kill millions of people every year,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “‘Today we have…

In his “Africa in Transition” blog, John Campbell, Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, examines the reemergence of polio in the Horn of Africa, noting the WHO in April “reported the new presence of wild polio virus type 1 (WPV1) in the…

“The massive effort to eradicate polio through worldwide vaccination hit some new speed bumps over the past several days, with fresh reports of outbreaks of the disease in the Horn of Africa, and continued deadly attacks on polio workers in rebel-controlled areas of Pakistan and Nigeria,” Jay Winsten, an associate…

The Financial Times Magazine features a story examining the challenges volunteer polio workers face in vaccinating children in Pakistan. The article details the murder of several polio workers in December 2012, the operation of vaccination teams and their security details, and rumors surrounding the polio vaccine that have caused some…

“Two volunteers in a polio immunization campaign were shot to death on Sunday in the Swabi district of northeastern Pakistan, the police said,” the New York Times reports. “The two volunteers, one a local schoolteacher, were killed by two gunmen, the district police chief, Mian Saeed, said,” the newspaper notes…

At least 25 children in northern Nigeria have been infected with wild polio virus this year, according to an official, the country’s Premium Times reports. WHO Consultant on Vaccine Security and Logistics Bolaji Buari “said this on Friday at Tegina town in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State ……

“[S]ome leading figures in Pakistan’s anti-polio drive believe more could have been done by the government to prevent” the murders of two polio vaccine workers killed on Sunday in Swabi district, “the latest in a spate of violence that has a total of 16 aid workers slain so far this…

IRIN: Cross border movements threaten Afghan polio eradication efforts “For health care workers, Torkham border crossing connecting eastern Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan straddles one of the most important regions in the world: Close to the border are some of the world’s few remaining reservoirs where the polio virus is endemic…”…

News outlets report on Pakistan’s new campaign that pays parents to vaccinate their children against polio. The Guardian: Pakistan to pay parents in new polio vaccination drive “Parents in one of Pakistan’s most troubled provinces are to be paid to vaccinate their children against polio, the crippling disease the world…